p.13 #1 · Sigma 14-24mm f/2.8 DG DN first impressions
wind30 wrote:
I don't really see why real world samples will help in evaluating a lens....
Wait, what? Unless literally the only thing you care about in photography is the degree of sharpness, real world pics tell you everything about a lens. Most people don't enjoy photography for sharpness battles. It's about capturing memories or making art, or recording a moment in history. Controlled tests can be useful, but until you see how it renders a variety of scenes in various lighting conditions, that's all fluff.
p.13 #2 · Sigma 14-24mm f/2.8 DG DN first impressions
Jman13 wrote:
Wait, what? Unless literally the only thing you care about in photography is the degree of sharpness, real world pics tell you everything about a lens. Most people don't enjoy photography for sharpness battles. It's about capturing memories or making art, or recording a moment in history. Controlled tests can be useful, but until you see how it renders a variety of scenes in various lighting conditions, that's all fluff.
Test shots replicate a variety of test conditions and not just sharpness. There are tests for flare, bokeh, ca, etc.
To me real world samples are shots that have artistic merit. It’s so much harder to judge a lens using those shots..... honestly, i have switched many lens over the years and for real world samples most lens are ok. A little softness or ca seldom breaks a good photo.
For me give me controllled shots every time if I am researching whether to buy a lens.
p.13 #3 · Sigma 14-24mm f/2.8 DG DN first impressions
Jman13 wrote:
Wait, what? Unless literally the only thing you care about in photography is the degree of sharpness, real world pics tell you everything about a lens. Most people don't enjoy photography for sharpness battles. It's about capturing memories or making art, or recording a moment in history. Controlled tests can be useful, but until you see how it renders a variety of scenes in various lighting conditions, that's all fluff.
Which is why I have kept the Leica WATE for so long. Sharpness, especially focusing in the world of deep corners, is many times way overrated. A lens can be razor sharp and yet be high contrast - depicting horrible separation or even totally missing the delicate layers of shades/colors in clouds. How are details picked up in shadows? How does it shoot with/without filters? Yes - sensor is a big part of this but so is glass. For this lens in particular how useful are using rear filters? Or its AF vs MF performance? As I'm not a big fan of AF in landscape photography.
Also real world experiences, which for me is in the elements of landscape photography, vs back yard tests in controlled situations are like comparing academia to the real world. So the lens shoots great while I'm in Bermuda shorts shooting in my backyard. Or it shoots great while strolling through the city park or zoo. Okay - great. But how does it shoot at -20? How does it shoot in other adverse weather conditions? Or in situations where focus stacking is needed?
Don't get me wrong as the backyard tests are useful and I myself do my own backyard tests to know/understand how the lens shoots best. But that's just a first level evaluation.
Give this lens to a Colby Brown or a Mark Metternich and see if they give this lens a thumbs up after one of their out in the boonies expeditions. Or on the technical and product quality side how does Lens Rentals rate this lens? Also the rolling reviews/experiences here at FM provides tons of valuable information.
p.13 #4 · Sigma 14-24mm f/2.8 DG DN first impressions
dbehrens wrote:
How does it shoot in other adverse weather conditions? Or in situations where focus stacking is needed?
Once you get to know what the lens' electronic distance scale is really telling you, it's a great lens for focus stacking because there is minimal focus breathing. I was very happy with how it handled on a 6 hour long star trail shoot along the coast last week too. No issues what-so-ever, and very crisp trails.But I would hate to have to mess around trying to change rear filters in adverse landscape conditions. Definitely using front filters on mine.
I'm not sure I would learn much about a lens from anyone's (post-processed) web-sized images. Much better to just go and try the lens yourself.
p.13 #5 · Sigma 14-24mm f/2.8 DG DN first impressions
I'd hate to give the impression I'm perpetually in Bermudas , so despite my comment above, here's about a 700-frame (heavily post-processed) composite I derived from the 6-hour astro shoot I mentioned above. Although it won't be evident from the image shown here, I consider this the best UWA astro lens I have ever used, with much less coma and CA and much sharper corners than the Laowa 15 that I previously used for UWA astro. Vignetting is perfectly acceptable to me, and despite being an electronic focus lens, I found handling in the dark very good too.
p.13 #6 · Sigma 14-24mm f/2.8 DG DN first impressions
rvh23 wrote:
I'd hate to give the impression I'm perpetually in Bermudas
Well I for one love wearing my shorts if weather and terrain permits!
First of all nice pic! For me night sky landscapes are one of those unforgiving situations where the lens can be brutal in the corners. (The link I posted on the Jack Fusco blog showed crisp night skies.) While a star trail pic really doesn't tell me much about CA in the corners I really appreciated your earlier test pic that was focused on center and compared how stars are depicted in each of the 4 corners. This lens seems to tick that astro box, which not only justifies its size/weight but to me is phenomenal for a zoom lens.
When you are setting up for your night shot how are you focusing? Since I only shoot MF at night I fine-tune focus on the brightest star with the magnifier. I'm assuming you can set this lens on MF and do the same?
p.13 #7 · Sigma 14-24mm f/2.8 DG DN first impressions
dbehrens wrote:
Well I for one love wearing my shorts if weather and terrain permits!
First of all nice pic! For me night sky landscapes are one of those unforgiving situations where the lens can be brutal in the corners. (The link I posted on the Jack Fusco blog showed crisp night skies.) While a star trail pic really doesn't tell me much about CA in the corners I really appreciated your earlier test pic that was focused on center and compared how stars are depicted in each of the 4 corners. This lens seems to tick that astro box, which not only justifies its size/weight but to me is phenomenal for a zoom lens.
When you are setting up for your night shot how are you focusing? Since I only shoot MF at night I fine-tune focus on the brightest star with the magnifier. I'm assuming you can set this lens on MF and do the same? ...Show more →
Thanks kindly. With my nightscapes often requiring large shadow amplification and contrast increases, and given we're shooting with wide apertures, I've found CA can actually become prominent with many lenses even in star trail images (e.g. if there is foreground that meets the sky in the corners). The Sigma zoom is superb in that regard.
Regarding manual focus, yes absolutely, I permanently have the lens set to full-time MF. Normally I also focus stars manually in max magnified view (as an alternative to using a bright star I sometimes also use faint stars that only become visible when you are well focused).
Although the lens is of the dreaded rotation-speed dependent focus-by-wire variety, that's actually useful for stars because it allows for a relatively large throw near infinity if you turn slowly. But I've also just been setting the lens according to its predetermined infinity distance (as displayed in-camera), which is about "7m" at 14mm on my copy, and been getting nice sharp stars just by doing that. Too easy.
p.13 #10 · Sigma 14-24mm f/2.8 DG DN first impressions
I just ordered the new Nisi S5 Filter Holder with the NC CPL option for my Sigma 14-24 DG DN lens. Should have it by September 19th. I'll post some pics and a review using it with my A7RIV. Looking forward to using it with some ND's as well and on some running water and water falls.
p.13 #11 · Sigma 14-24mm f/2.8 DG DN first impressions
Chuck Coyne wrote:
I just ordered the new Nisi S5 Filter Holder with the NC CPL option for my Sigma 14-24 DG DN lens.
I am sure it will just work fine and you will be satisfied with.
I myself would like to use the Sigma 14-24 DN lens with ND filters mainly. The filter plates are quite huge (150mm) and costly. Would use too much space in my camera to find a permanent place there.
I would very much appreciate small rigid quality filters for use in the rear filter holder. Cutting complex shaped filter pieces that will fit into the lens' rear filter holder is not an option for me, yet.
Is there nothing ready for use on the market? Sigma seems not to offer appropriate filters.
p.13 #13 · Sigma 14-24mm f/2.8 DG DN first impressions
Nisi also make a round ND64+CPL combination filter that fits the S5 adapter without the need for the rectangular holder attachment. It's pretty much the only filter I need as I only rarely want CPL without ND, and can rotate the filter to eliminate the CPL effect when I want only ND. It makes for a relatively compact system that is really quick to attach or remove from the lens as I leave the filter on the adapter permanently.
p.13 #14 · Sigma 14-24mm f/2.8 DG DN first impressions
rvh23 wrote:
Nisi also make a round ND64+CPL combination filter that fits the S5 adapter without the need for the rectangular holder attachment. It's pretty much the only filter I need as I only rarely want CPL without ND, and can rotate the filter to eliminate the CPL effect when I want only ND. It makes for a relatively compact system that is really quick to attach or remove from the lens as I leave the filter on the adapter permanently.
Yes I was planning on getting one of this as well. Should be a great way to eliminate some of the bulk of the square filters.
p.13 #15 · Sigma 14-24mm f/2.8 DG DN first impressions
What size is the Polarizer that sits in this system? It looks bigger then 82mm?
rvh23 wrote:
Nisi also make a round ND64+CPL combination filter that fits the S5 adapter without the need for the rectangular holder attachment. It's pretty much the only filter I need as I only rarely want CPL without ND, and can rotate the filter to eliminate the CPL effect when I want only ND. It makes for a relatively compact system that is really quick to attach or remove from the lens as I leave the filter on the adapter permanently.
p.13 #17 · Sigma 14-24mm f/2.8 DG DN first impressions
rvh23 wrote:
The S5 filters are 150mm (glass section is about 140mm).
Yeah I get that, but the circular portion that you are saying the ND64+CPL combination filter could use is....105mm? They only make up to 82mm in that filter.. im just trying to understand how I could save space from having the big square portion of the system.
p.13 #18 · Sigma 14-24mm f/2.8 DG DN first impressions
I am talking about the "circular portion" (i.e. round filter diameter). It's the same width as the rectangular holder. Have a look here and scroll down. It's much larger than standard screw-on polarizers.
rvh23 wrote:
I am talking about the "circular portion" (i.e. round filter diameter). It's the same width as the rectangular holder. Have a look here and scroll down. It's much larger than standard screw-on polarizers.
p.13 #20 · Sigma 14-24mm f/2.8 DG DN first impressions
Is there really no product information around shaped ND filters fitting into ther rear filter holder?
Cutting the gel foils and handling the resulting shaped, tiny and flexible, filters outdoor seems not to be a practical way.
Searching on the Sigma pages and via google I do not find any information around appropriate filters. Considering the irregular shape the lens maker or someone else should provide durable NDs to the 14-24 DN lens users.
, so despite my comment above, here's about a 700-frame (heavily post-processed) composite I derived from the 6-hour astro shoot I mentioned above. Although it won't be evident from the image shown here, I consider this the best UWA astro lens I have ever used, with much less coma and CA and much sharper corners than the Laowa 15 that I previously used for UWA astro. Vignetting is perfectly acceptable to me, and despite being an electronic focus lens, I found handling in the dark very good too. 